Fish, Swords, and A Park

Since my last post, I made some changes to my weekend plans upon the invitation of a dorm-mate. He invited me to get up early on Saturday (today) to go to the fish market at Tsukiji and to get up early again tomorrow (Sunday) to try get tickets for a sumo match. We'll see how the latter offer turns out, but here's what happened today.
I did indeed get up early, and a group of us gaikokujin (the form of the word you probably know better is gaijin) headed off to the Tsukiji fish market. This is a place to which the fish that were caught the day before have been brought overnight. Most of Tokyo's seafood comes from this market. In the earlier part of the morning it is auctioned; we missed that, unfortunately, but we still got to wander the stalls of the wholesalers and see all sorts of sea creatures, sliced and frozen and whatnot in various ways. It was disturbing, though, to watch a man half-cut off the heads of fishes and sever their spinal chords, then leave them to breathe in bloody water. That wasn't so cool. (There was also a guy using a saw to cut frozen fish. That was cool,.)
Afterwards, we went and had sushi nearby. Surprise.
I split off from the group after that and, after converting some money to yen and wandering about like an idiot trying to find a landmark, I headed for the Japanese Sword Museum in Yoyogi. Unfortunately, I found nothing by way of swords to purchase or tips on doing so; also, most of the text was in Japanese, so I didn't learn enough about each individual blade. Still, there was a lot of very old, shiny steel in that museum, and I got some literature in English.
Next, I went to the Meiji Shrine area. This consists of a large, very wooded park dedicated to the memory of the emperor Meiji. (He's the one who came right after the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in the late 1860s, bringing Westernization to Japan.) There was a "Treasure House" where things like vases, one of the emperor's desks, etc. were on display. The main attraction, however, was the Shrine itself, another post-war reconstruction (although it wasn't ferroconcrete). I got to see one + Shinto wedding processionals while I was there. There was also a large gate at one of the entrances to the temple. Adding to my growing list of souvenirs, I purchased some good luck charms, as well as what I believe to be a copy of the Imperial Rescript on Education.
My feet are really tired, and need tonight's break. Unfortunately, I get to stand in line tomorrow morning and walk through a museum. Urgh. At least I got to see the Meiji Shrine. (Go Google it.)